Out of the five million DMCA takedown requests Microsoft filed with Google last year, there are probably plenty of legitimate ones involving copyright infringement and protected content. But then there are the automated requests to censor sites like BBC, CNN, HuffPo, TechCrunch, Wikipedia and a bunch of others, including its own search engine, Bing. Whoops.

When we read stories like Tanya Andersen’s and consider the countless others who have been wrongfully targeted by trade groups like the RIAA, it becomes evident that the system by which DMCA takedown notices are issued is very far from perfect. For the uninitiated, DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notices are official statements which assert that an artist’s or company’s intellectual rights have been violated (i.e. copyright infringement) and often threaten legal action against an individual. In a study conducted by the University of Washington, researchers proved that this system is seriously flawed, according to the New York Times. In one experiment, the team received takedown notices from the MPAA which accused 3 laserjet printers of downloading the latest Indiana Jones movie and Iron Man. More, inside…